The Conference on the Future of Europe will be at the centre of a debate among delegates of the European institutions and the Churches: on 16th November, at the initiative of Roberta Metsola, deputy president, a workshop will be held to collect “the contributions of the delegates of communities of faith and philosophical communities” to the Conference. The programme, which has not been finalised yet, includes the opening speeches of the institutional leaders (in addition to the president of the EU Parliament David Maria Sassoli, the three joint presidents of the executive board of the Conference on the Future of Europe, Gašper Dovžan, Slovenian Minister of Foreign Affairs, commissioner Dubravka Šuica, MEP Guy Verhofstadt, and commissioner Margaritis Schinas), then a number of voices from Churches and religious communities. The list includes Stefan Lunte on behalf of Comece, Lena Kumlin on behalf of Cec, Michael Bauer on behalf of the European Humanist Federation, the rabbis Jaron Engelmayer and Avi Tawil, Julie Pascoet on behalf of the Muslim community, and Carlo Luyckx on behalf of Buddhists. It will be followed by a session of discussions, then by the conclusions of deputy president Roberta Metsola, in charge of dialogue with communities of faith and philosophical communities. The conference will be streamed so it can be watched online (by logging into https://opiniolx.europarl.europa.eu/opinio/s?s=s1998).
Under article 17 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the EU is legally bound to have “an open, transparent and regular dialogue with Churches, religious associations and philosophical and non-confessional organisations”. That’s why the European Parliament has appointed a deputy president in charge of having such dialogues and regularly convenes workshops on matters that are relevant to the European Union.